Determining efficient multimodal information-interaction spaces for C2 systems

Military operations and friendly fire mishaps over the last decade have demonstrated that Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems may often lack the ability to efficiently and effectively support operations in complex, time critical environments. With the vast increase in the amount and type of information available, the challenge to today's military system designers is to create interfaces that allow warfighters to proficiently process the optimal amount of mission essential data [1]. To meet this challenge, multimodal system technology is showing great promise because, as the technology that supports C4ISR systems advances, the possibility of leveraging all of the human sensory systems becomes possible. The implication is that by facilitating the efficient use of a C4ISR operator's multiple information processing resources, substantial gains in the information management capacity of the warfighter-computer integral may be realized [2]. Despite its great promise, however, the potential of multimodal technology as a tool for streamlining interaction within military C4ISR environments may not be fully realized until the following guiding principles are identified:how to combine visualization and multisensory display techniques for given users, tasks, and problem domainshow task attributes should be represented (e.g., via which modality, via multiple modalities);which multimodal interaction technique(s) is most appropriate. Due to the current lack of empirical evidence and principle-driven guidelines, designers often encounter difficulties when choosing the most appropriate modal interaction techniques for given users, applications, or specific military command and control (C2) tasks within C4ISR systems. The implication is that inefficient multimodal C2 system design may hinder our military's ability to fully support operations in complex, time critical environments and thus impede warfighters' ability to achieve accurate situational awareness (SA) in a timely manner [1]. Consequently, warfighters are often becoming overwhelmed when provided with more information than they can accurately process. The development of multimodal design guidelines from both a user and task domain perspective is thus critical to the achievement of successful Human Systems Integration (HSI) within military environments such as C2 systems. This study provides preliminary empirical support in identifying user attributes, such as spatial ability (p